Lonliness Has a Cure
by bogey654
Summary: It's a well-known expression that it's lonely at the top. The famous Akiza Izinski's lonliness is hidden well, yet it is still there, eating away. A scoop-hungry reporter and the Black Rose...what will Carly do to ease this lonley feeling? What CAN she do to touch this heart of stone?
1. A Foiled Plan

Hello there, new fandom! Ok, that's not strictly true. It's a new fandom for me to write for, I've loved Yu-Gi-Oh! for a long time. After browsing a lot of stories on here, I've drawn some...heart-breaking conclusions. The standard here is...less than stellar. However, what is really bad, is the serious lack of yuri! I'm here to somewhat patch the first (there ARE some good stories) and _definitely_ patch the second. No offence to those people mind, everyone starts somewhere. It's perfectly fine to write how you'd like. Live and learn!

Hopefully people here enjoy yuri! I might be contributing more to this archive, but I have quite a few stories to get to. Regardless, enjoy, the first chapter of this story guys, and expect more soon.

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Carly Carmine was sweating. She was sweating so badly. The reason? Well...that requires a short story to begin. A local Duel Monsters tournament was being held in her city of residence, and the ever scoop-hungry Carly entered, hoping simply to get a great story. However, in round one she was due to go up against the famous Akiza Izinski. The plan was to win her way up high to earn the respect of the tournament winner, thereby gaining an interview with said person.

However, losing in round one was _not_ going to help. In fact, Carly seriously doubted her chances now. The crowd was small, as it usually was at the start of tournaments. Despite this, the hot sun and her own worries led to a sweaty forehead.

'No! If I can do this...I'll get a scoop for sure!' The thought gave her strength, and allowed her to ignore the small crowd of fanboys and girls cheering for Akiza. The huge platform from within the stadium was the arena in which the duo were to play in. A confident and stoic Akiza called the coin toss before the referee even spoke.

"Heads." The singular word rung out strongly, in spite of how quiet her voice was. The background buzz of people laughing, chatting and otherwise enjoying themselves paled next to this powerful voice.

"Tails. Would you like to start?" The referee made eye contact with Carly.

"Uh...um...yes?" Carly's voice completely broke. The way Akiza was watching her intently, almost daring her, threw Carly off. She didn't even blink. The epitome of seriousness. The purple-haired female held her hand out for a handshake. The corner of her lip raised in amusement as the bluenette in front of her hesitantly took it.

Carly never saw the smirk.

Her nervous habit of pushing her oddly-designed glasses up her nose kicked in. Dragging her half-ton feet (as they felt at that particular moment) to the podium and gripping the bridge of her nose, she pondered how she was going to pull this off. Her precious Fortune Fairies were a solid deck, but the globally famous plants...it would need to be a quick overpowering, or she would lose. Her nerves were not eased by the gathering of extra spectators. She stared at the woman across from her, unnerved further by her confident demeanour. She wasn't even cocky, just...confident.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Round one..." Introduction speech in the background, Akiza in the foreground. Her legs jelly and her head sore, Carly was almost ready to just give up there and then. However...

"Begin!" The announcer shouted out and the crowd turned their attention to Carly.

"Uh...draw!" She yelled, meekly. Akiza didn't even pick up a hand. She just watched Carly draw six cards. A quick analysis of her hand led to a simple conclusion: shit. "I...play a full backrow!" The crowd gasped. Everyone was aware of the world-famous Heavy Storm card. In Carly's mind, she was simply trying to bluff that she had a great field to control with whilst she drew better cards. All her spells were useless here; she only had Hikari in hand. "And I set one monster. End!" Her voice strengthened a little, if she was to win she would have to bluff her way through the first two turns, at least. That four thousand number looked awfully small right now.

"Draw." Akiza's normal voice echoed far more than it should have. Her hand was full of options. Her analysis of her foe led to an accurate conclusion. She had nothing to fear. "Twilight Rose Knight." Carly nodded, swallowing and inadvertedly telling Akiza that she had nothing.

"No response..."

"Hmph." 'A dejected statement...I have this.' "Summon Botanical Lion!" The two creatures jumped to the field, giving Carly no idea of what was coming next. "Next, synchro summon!" Akiza picked out the top card of her extra deck and placed it in the middle monster card zone. "Black Rose Dragon! Effect!" An intimidating hologram roared out before exploding.

"No!" With no card to stop this destruction, all of Carly's face-down cards disapeared from the field. She felt desolated at that particular moment. "I have...no cards left..."

"Monster reborn!" A dry call was followed up by the exact same previous roar a moment later. "My dragon attacks!" The huge screen that signified life points beeped, and the crowd saw that Carly had almost lost. "End turn." Akiza shouted after placing a card face-down.

"Ugh..." Carly drew her card and immediately placed it in her monster card zone, face-down. "End!" In that moment, Akiza smiled. A genuine smile. She didn't even bother drawing a card, she simply reached for her graveyard. "Rose Restrict!" Thorns, holographic thorns gripped Carly's card and flipped it to face-up attack position. The attack was already zero, but Akiza simply stacked her cards together and stepped down.

"The winner...Akiza Izinski!" Carly stared at her feet dejectedly, hollowly accepting the announcer's call.

"Wait..." She perked up as Akiza went to sit down on a bench at the side of the arena. Nobody went near her. "This is my chance...to interview the famous Akiza!" Excitement took hold, and Carly ran girlishly over to the stoic woman. She barely registered the care Akiza took in not creasing her purple velvet dress, nor the white trimming underneath. She paused four feet away when Akiza stared at her intently.

"Yes?" Hordes of fans knew what was going to happen. That blue-haired girl was going to ask for an autograph, get shot down, yadda yadda...

"Um..." Again, the glasses-pushing habit surfaced. "I uh..." 'Come on Carly...this is your chance, don't screw it up!'

"Hmph." The "Rose Witch," as some referred to her, crossed her arms and sighed.

"Sorry!" The standee blurted. Hair flowed with the breeze as she shook her head in an effort to clear her head. "I just wanted to say..." Carly's fingers made a peace sign, and she winked to get her point across. Of course, she had her glasses on, so the wink was rendered redundant. "That was an impressive game!" Her momentary confidence faltered at the look of disbelief aimed at her.

"It was an incredibly simple game. You played too many cards. I destroyed them. End of story." The deadpan statement was impossible to deny. Carly persisted, boldly taking the seat next to Akiza.

"Ok, true. But your cards and skill are truly amazing!"

"Flattery won't work." A hand waved at Carly, resembling a human shooing a cat or bird of some kind. Her eyes were lidded, and her tense body was the result of impatience. "Just say what you came over for." _That_ took the reporter aback.

"Uh...ok..." '_Plentiful powers of persuation, go!_' "How would you like the opportunity to be interviewed for my news-"

"No." Carly stopped dead, her waving hands frozen by the pure bluntness of the reply. Akiza's eyes met Carly's. "Now leave, please." Something was conveyed in that expression. Carly couldn't place what, but it was there.

"Ah...ok...I'm sorry." She turned around. Her brown top, her tight jeans, her very throat felt too tight, constricting. Before she left, she turned around to find Akiza still watching her. "Seriously...it's not just flattery. You really are amazing. No...no ulterior motive." Embarrased, the wayward reporter rushed away, tail between her legs.

"Heh..." A flawless hand covered a pair of lips, and Akiza giggled genuinely for the first time in a long while. 'She left quickly...at least she knows when to leave something alone.' After this internal observation, she watched two scrubs play each other for the right to advance in the tournament. She tried not to think about Carly, who had been her first pseudo-casual conversation in days.


	2. Alienation

Hey guys! I'm back with chapter two. Granted it's a small chapter, but I do that occasionally. I will not be updating this as often as I'd like, mainly because I will be dividing my time between this and a series of other stories. Still, I hope you enjoy!

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"Ow!" Carly glanced down at the fingernail on her left hand. It was the third one she had annihilated, and it was proving painful. Keeping tabs on Akiza for the day was not that hard. She always settled on the same bench after her games, alone. She would always stare at the current duo playing and frown at the bad plays. Carly did not know what to do. The woman should not be intimidating in any sense of the word. She still lived with her parents if the abundance of rumours were to be believed! But the way she held herself, her stature left Carly a wobbling mess.

"And now for the semi-finals!" The announcment took Carly by surprise, forcing a jump and a cry from her throat.

"Already?" Carly shrugged off her brown jacket due to the heat and stared at Akiza as the announcer called Akiza's name. Her purple dress flowed elegantly behind her. Her steps almost...they almost conveyed boredom. Slow, steady. Akiza glanced around at the huge crowd. There were easily forty-thousand people in the stadium, but she didn't even flinch. Her opponent was clearly nervous, constantly glancing around. However, he was a skilled player. His Blackwing deck proved destructive time and time again, even scoring some one-turn-kills. There had been a couple of scenarios where he had his back to the wall and had made a huge comeback.

His orange hair was spiked up, his jeans faded and his jacket was leather. Carly overheard some casual background chatter. She heard a few people murmur about how the guy was 'probably from Sattelite,' and how he was most likely 'a no-good trouble maker.' Akiza leaned on the side of her standing area. She was nonchalant about the crowd that was cheering for her and casually inspected her nails as she waited. It seemed that nobody was cheering for the young man, who was named 'Crow,' according to the announcement.

"Akiza and Crow, you may begin!" As the two drew their cards, Crow tensed up for a second. Someone had just thrown their hot-dog and yelled 'Sattelite scum.'

Crow didn't rage, or even search for the culprit. He simply drew his sixth card and ignored the ketchup on his back.

"Draw!" He yelled. The crowd had fallen silent. It was a rule; players needed to hear each other. His facial expression was neutral, giving nothing away. "I summon Shura in attack mode!" Akiza watched as a large holographic bird appeared on the field. It was a worrying card at that precise moment. "And I'll play one card face-down." Carly stared as Crow Set just one card. "End turn."

"Ok...slow start." Carly murmured to herself. Akiza could beat this thing, surely? 1800 was quite impressive, but this was _Akiza._ The one who beat her whole field in one turn!

"Draw!" She was so serious. She knew her foe was not to be under-estimated. She analysed her hand carefully. It was solid, but slow. She took one card and placed it onto the field. "Botanical Lion! This monster gains three-hundred attack for each Plant-type monster on the field, including itself!" The monster roared as it popped up on te field. It quickly went to a static standstill. "Battle Phase! Botanical Lion attacks!" The Lion rushed at the bird-like creature. Crow quickly discarded a card from his hand.

"I discard my Kalut! Shura gains 1400 attack points!" The monster on the field met Botanical Lion with a huge fist that burst into flames. The flames grew larger due to the influence of the Kalut. "Shura's effect!" Crow quickly searched out a Kalut and placed it onto the field.

Akiza faltered.

"I play Miracle Fertiliser! Special Summon Botanical Lion! And Set one card. End turn." Crow flipped up his face-down card with a triumphant smirk.

"Icarus attack! I Tribute my Kalut to destroy Botanical Lion and your face-down!" The holographic burst led to Akiza bowing her head.

"I concede." The crowd gasped. Akiza had lost, and Crow was going to the finals! Carly watched as Akiza stepped down the steps, hurriedly leaving. Unsure of what to say, she rushed as well, almost forgetting her bag as she chased after Akiza.

"Wait!" Blue hair in her face, Carly shouted to catch Akiza's attention. She succeded. The stadium was behind them, and the traffic was quite a way in front. It was quiet for the duo.

"You." Brown eyes pierced Carly's glasses, creating a nervous atmosphere. "Can I help you?" Carly panted for a few moments. Purple tresses were smoothed out by a pale hand, the unique hairstyle unchanging. Akiza blinked as Carly drew in a deep breath.

"You...you did well." She drew herself up and tried to appear nonchalant. "He just got lucky."

"Crow is a good player. I beat him in the last tournament. He beat me today. It's how it works." Carly's jaw dropped.

"Wow..." Akiza's eyes widened as Carly began blushing and squealing. "Wow! Wow! You're so cool!" She rushed at Akiza and ran in circles. She had grabbed her notepad in her frenzy and was lost in fangirl mode. "When did you start playing? Have you always been so modest? How about your tournament track-record? What about advice? What's it like being famous? Whe-"

"I don't WANT TO BE INTERVIEWED!" Akiza huffed and stomped her foot. "Jesus! Some people!" She started to walk off, ignoring Carly's dejected posture.

"I'm...sorry..." Akiza glanced back once, arms crossed. She carried on walking. Carly stared after her, with one thought in her head.

'Shit.'

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Carly was thoughtful. She was making her bed and was settling down to sleep. She lay down and sighed, staring at the ceiling. She had upset Akiza, failed to get her scoop and even worse, alienated Akiza.

'How can I resolve this?' After a few minutes of thinking, she settled to do it the old-school way. 'I'll just knock on her door and apologise. Tomorrow...'


End file.
